Parkettes Doc?

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Hello :]

Sorry if there was a forum on this, I searched it but I could have missed it. I was wondering what people thought of the Parkettes documentary. I liked it, I thought it was thorough and nicely done, providing more information than just the elites.
However, I felt really bad for the Parkettes. Since I do gymnastics and did competitive, the coaches seen fine to me, they don't seem rude or harsh or whatever. With Nicole Harris, I thought Bill treated her very well, and knew how to deal with her. Coming from an outside perspective, I can see how the gym was taken in such a negative light. I guess seeing little girls doing gymnastics, is something easy to pick out, especially when seeing that little Ashely after she hurt herself.

Last year I did a video on chinese gymnastics for history, and one segment I did a comparison of that to the U.S. Part of my video I included the parkettes document, and I think some of the kids in the class thought some of the coaches were really rude.

Feel free to post your opinions :]
 
If you got enough footage at any gym or anywhere else in the world forr that matter you could make the place look bad.
 
We have a couple of posters on here who are very happy with their children going to Parkettes. I'm always interested when they post as if you read Gymworld or WW gym message boards Parkettes are mostly portrayed in a very bad light. They always come up in threads called stuff like 'clubs you should never send your children to' etc. WGA Texans is another that comes up in those threads. I have never heard of any English clubs being portrayed in such a bad light. I wonder if it is that Parkettes are so well known and there is lots of footage about them. It must be really hard as a parent if your experiences with the club are good but you can read all these terrible things about them.
 
Funny thing was, I watched that doc and thought it was a normal gym with good coaches. Yes, they were harsh, but those girls wanted to be on the Olympic team and you aren't going to get there being a big jessie. Also- we didn't know the background stories- some people need a kick up the backside to succeed, and maybe some of those girls hadn't been working, hence the coaches' attitudes. It was unfairly edited IMHO.

Although I did think the wee girl Ashleigh's mum was a nutter. Again, only MHO.
 
What I find interesting is how people seem to make such a big deal out of how gymnasts are treated, and seem to forget that the kids get yelled at by coaches in other sports; coaches get disappointed with athletes in other sports as well. But it seems as if gymnastics is picked on more than other sports. I rather enjoyed the documentary, and maybe its because being in the world of gymnastics we're desensitized to what outside observers see as being mean?
 
Thank you all, I agree with all of your opinions! I think it is very true that people do forget that coaches yell in other sports. Especially football, maybe the fact that it is girls in this? But I know our high school football team which is one of the top in the state has a very strict policy.

I also agree with I-Heart-Beam, to me it seemed normal and I think more background should have been done to make it more fair. I was surprised they did not show the successful stories more, such as Tia and Kristal, I think Tia's main part was her backtalking with the coach.
 

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